Just a Little Bit of Magic
by SeaSpectre160
Summary: Practical Magic/Mahō Sentai Magiranger: The strange man hardly blinked when he caught her using magic. Instead, he caught her by surprise. Tsubasa/Kylie. Not part of the United AU.


**Hello all! Exams and term papers are done, and I am free, free, free! Finally got this one done!**

**For those who are unfamiliar with one of the fandoms:**

**In 'Practical Magic', a pair of witch sisters are confronted with trouble when they accidentally kill one sister's abusive ex and attempt to bring him back to life to avoid murder charges, only for one to be possessed but his ghost. Kylie is one of the two daughters of the other sister, and is around ten or eleven years old at the time.**

**In ****'Mahō Sentai Magiranger', a family of five teens/young adults discover that their family is destined to fight monsters from the Underworld with magic. Tsubasa is the second-youngest at nineteen, an expert potion maker and arguably the one with the best control, given that he's the only one whose spells always go right the first time. He's since continued his pursuit of becoming a professional boxer.**

**Timeline Info:**

**Kylie's actress Evan Rachel Wood was born on September 7, 1987. Tsubasa's actor Hiroya Matsumoto was born on June 21, 1986, but Tsubasa's officially given age (19) puts the character's birthday in 1985. The main events of 'Practical Magic' are in October 1998. Magiranger ran from February 2005 to February 2006. This is set in January of 2007, nearly a year after the end of Magiranger, so Kylie is 19 and Tsubasa is 21.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own 'Practical Magic' or 'Mahō Sentai Magiranger'.**

**WORD COUNT: 2786**

* * *

_Thursday, January 11__th__, 2007_

Kylie Owens was a witch. The whole town knew that. They also knew that her mother Sally was a witch, her four younger siblings Antonia, Jack, Gary Jr., and Regina were witches, her Aunt Gilly was a witch, her cousins were witches, and her Aunts Jet and Frances were witches.

Until Kylie was eleven years old, that had been a bad thing. People crossed the street to avoid walking by them, the other children threw rocks at her and Antonia and chanted "Witch, witch, you're a bitch!" (the exact same rhyme their parents had shouted at Mom and Aunt Gilly many years ago – Mom liked to roll her eyes and comment on the unoriginality). Then Aunt Gilly had been possessed by the ghost of her abusive ex, and Mom had had no choice but to invite the women of the town to come help exorcise the bastard. The women had been surprised to be invited in, and the Owens' reputation had changed afterward. No longer were they the mysterious, semi-reclusive hags that everyone was afraid to cross; now they were the town's protectors and its secret pride. Kylie wasn't sure how that had happened, but she wasn't going to question a good thing.

About eight years later, Kylie had graduated from high school over a year ago, but was still staying and helping at her mother's store, despite Mom gently pushing her to look into post-secondary education. Kylie had discovered, growing up, that she had a natural talent for magicks regarding healing potions created from plants. She had her own small plot of medicinal herbs in the garden of the Owens house, and Mom had started selling her remedies for things like acne and upset stomachs, and giving Kylie the profits of her hard work.

She was aware that she'd become quite popular amongst the local boys in her teen years, but none of them had felt 'right'. Despite the townspeople becoming far more welcoming to her family, the boys her age just didn't understand her craft, or why she loved it so much. Antonia was having far more luck in the romance department. Her little sister had an affinity for animals, for understanding their needs and emotions. So she was planning to go to veterinary school, along with a guy she'd met while working at the local animal shelter.

It was one day in January when Kylie met the first guy who was genuinely interested in her craft.

It was late in the evening; her mother and Gary were having a date night, and Carla was doing something with her family, so it was just Kylie and Patty in her mother's store. Patty was handling the counter while Kylie was in the back, replenishing their stock of 'teas' that treated the usual symptoms of the common cold. As was expected for that time of year, they were in high demand. However, she ran into a significant stumbling block: she was out of purple coneflower root. Coneflower (known scientifically as Echinacea) was an excellent remedy for cold symptoms, despite scientists claiming that there was no proof of such. It was a vital ingredient in the mixture of herbs she was making, and she was certain they'd had some that morning. So she went out front to ask Patty if she'd accidentally put it on the shelves, as that had happened before – even Kylie herself was guilty of such a mix-up.

There were three customers in the store. Two of them were chuckling amongst themselves as they looked at the shelves. They probably didn't believe that these natural remedies worked; she saw it all the time. The third seemed to be actually browsing the small section of raw ingredients, as opposed to the teas, lotions, etc. that most of their clientele bought pre-made. Kylie realized that she'd never seen any of them before, so they were either new in town or just passing through. They were all men, and the laughing pair seemed to be several years her senior while the third could easily be about her age.

As Patty assured her that no, she hadn't taken the coneflower root, the first two men came up to the counter. "So, uh, you really think this hocus-pocus stuff actually works?" the one with a British accent asked in between chuckles.

Kylie kept her expression neutral. "Yes, I do. If you're so skeptical, then why did you come in here?" In her mind, she could just hear her mother scolding her for being rude to a potential customer, but Kylie was sure that this one wouldn't have bought anything anyway, so how she spoke to him didn't _really_ make a difference.

The second man jerked his thumb towards the third, who was still browsing, but was now occasionally glancing over at them. "Ozu really wanted to come in here for whatever reason. I guess he believes it. We're just his unofficial translators."

Patty smiled brightly in his direction. "Well, you boys let us know if you need help finding anything."

Speaking of, Kylie had coneflower root to hunt down. She double-checked under the counter, came up with nothing, then sighed and headed to where the packets on sale were shelved. They all came from her own garden, and the sale profits went to her anyway, so she was really only stealing from herself, and one small packet wouldn't make any significant difference.

Unfortunately, in her haste – she didn't want to leave her work sitting unattended for long – she accidentally knocked over a large bowl of homemade bath bombs. The little, waxy, multicoloured balls went bouncing across the floor while the rainbow-striped ceramic bowl shattered. Kylie yelped and jumped back, bumping into a table but thankfully not knocking anything else over.

"Aww, Mom liked that bowl," she moaned. The bath bombs would be fine, and the bowl had been cheap and not actually part of the inventory, but still… Sighing, after assuring Patty that she wasn't hurt, Kylie knelt down and started gingerly picking up the pieces. Thankfully, the shards were quite large, and she figured she could put them back together with magic, which would have been logistically impossible if they'd been too small, not to mention too dangerous to handle. After finding two big shards that matched up, Kylie held them together and carefully traced her finger along the seam. Sure enough, the crack filled in, as if it had never happened.

The customers appeared to have moved to another part of the store, so Kylie continued what she was doing, not that she'd been actively trying to hide her magic, given that it was common knowledge around town. Still, she'd gotten so absorbed in her task that she jumped in surprise when another hand came into her field of vision to pass her another piece.

"Ow!" In her surprise, her finger had slipped on a sharp edge, slicing open a long, but fairly shallow cut. She looked up and saw the third man, the one who hadn't been making a big joke out of her mother's shop, looking at her in concern. She prepared herself for the freakout that usually came when a newcomer first witnessed one of the Owens women (or boys) doing magic, especially if they hadn't been forewarned.

Instead, this young man gently took her hand and pulled something out of his bag. It was a small, round, glass bottle, like the kind perfume came in, filled with a light yellow liquid. Kylie initially thought he'd taken it off their shelves, then remembered that all the items they had in stock were in cylindrical bottles, therefore it couldn't have come from this store. Carefully, he spritzed a bit onto her finger before covering it with his hand. Kylie felt a strange tingling sensation around the wound, and when the strange man uncovered it, the injury had completely healed. Like what she'd been doing with the ceramic shards, there was no evidence that she'd been hurt.

"Kylie, are you okay?" Patty called over in concern.

"I-I'm fine," Kylie replied, a little breathless. Aside from the gatherings throughout the year, she didn't often encounter any other witches, especially not in this small town, and all the ones she'd met (aside from her little brothers) had been female. She knew male witches existed, obviously, but this was the first one she'd met that wasn't related to her.

He simply smiled, pulled out a customized gold cell phone, and flipped it open. To Kylie's confusion, a part of the cover flipped outward again to form a sort of point, with no purpose that she could think of. It also had some kind of red jewel at the tip. With a secretive look on his face, he pointed it at the glass, pressed the 4 on the keypad twice, and muttered something like "Majiine Majiine".

Instantly, all the broken pieces of ceramic, including a few that had been out of her sight, flew together and re-assembled into the shape of the bowl. A couple pieces that would have otherwise hit one of them even 'took care' to detour around them, one making her jump as it whizzed by her right ear.

She was quite impressed, to say the least. While she'd grown up with magic for most of her life, she had never seen a spellcasting method like that. Magic and modern technology weren't supposed to mesh well, yet he apparently used an electronic device to channel his spell, one that got the job done a lot more quickly than her method. And she wanted to get the recipe for that potion! Her aunts knew healing spells, but they didn't quite work that quickly, either.

"Uh… Thanks." It was really the only response that came to mind, and judging from his companion's comment, he didn't speak English, anyway. Add in the fact that he was rather attractive, and Kylie wasn't certain that she could form a coherent sentence of she tried.

He helped her gather up the bath bombs and put everything back where it belonged, much to the astonishment of the other two men when they saw the repaired bowl. Blushing furiously, Kylie retreated back to the back room, completely forgetting what she'd gone out for in the first place until she spotted the corner of her bag of coneflower root sticking out from underneath her recipe book.

Patty came in a few minutes later, a knowing grin on her face. "Saw something you liked?" she teased.

Kylie felt her cheeks heating up further. "I- He's just a guy! A nice guy who helped me out and wasn't an asshole like his friends!"

"I wouldn't say they're his friends; apparently they're all boxers on a world tour, or something, and those two were just the only ones who could translate for him. I'm surprised he didn't react when you fixed the bowl, and so quickly, too!" Patty wasn't a witch herself, but she'd known the Owens family long enough to know that such a speedy repair was quite impressive.

"That's because I only started the job; he finished it quicker than I ever could."

Patty gaped at the revelation. "He's a witch, too?! Tell me you got his number!"

Please. She'd been embarrassed enough, showing how much of a klutz she was in front of a total stranger. Kylie told Patty so, wishing the older woman would just go back out front and leave her to her brewing. But of course Patty wasn't going to be swayed that easily.

"Honey, if his two friends, or colleagues, or whatever you want to call them, don't know about or believe in magic, then there's a possibility that he's surrounded by people he can't share his skills with. I don't know about you, but I think he'd enjoy getting to know someone he's got something in common with, whether she's clumsy or not. And…" Patty paused. "It's not like most of the other boys around here appreciate what you can do. Far as I see, you're missing out if you let him get away."

"But he doesn't even speak English! How am I supposed to talk to him about potions and spells if we can't even understand each other?"

Patty only shook her head. "You'd find a way around it. You're smart enough to figure something out, and for all I know, so is he! This might be a chance you won't be getting again for a long time."

* * *

After a talk with her mother that night, Kylie set off the next morning on a mission. She made some enquiries around town and found out where the touring boxers had been staying overnight, and when they would be departing this small town and heading for their destination.

Luck was with her, as she arrived at the motel just as they were packing up the bus and getting ready to go. At first she was worried that she wouldn't find him in time, but then she – quite literally – ran into him as he exited the building.

"I'm sorry!" she apologised. He shook his head with a smile, his body language saying it was fine. His eyes seemed to light up as he recognised her.

"Magic shop girl!" Apparently he wasn't the only one, as the British boxer cried out and came over. "Lovely to see you again! I've been dying to know how you did that trick last night! What was it? Magnets? Identical replacement? How'd you make it look like you fixed that bowl?"

Kylie ignored his question. "Please tell your friend that I'm very grateful for his help last night, and that I'm sorry I dashed off on him like that. And he's welcome to stop by our store if he's ever in town again. Also…" She blushed heavily as she handed him a paper bag. "I heard you guys were boxers, so I thought I'd give you this." The bag contained a heavy glass jar and a few packets of herbs, along with a slip of paper. "It's my mom's recipe, heals sore muscles and bruises and stuff. Plus a copy of the recipe itself and some of the ingredients that are harder to get, for when you eventually run out." She figured that since he'd been buying raw ingredients last night, he either knew how to make the stuff or knew someone who did. And, at Mom, Aunt Gilly, and Patty;s insistence, she'd added a little note at the bottom of the paper.

Utterly confused, the British guy translated everything she said, causing the kind stranger to break out into a grin. He spoke something, and his translator complied: "He wants to know your name."

"Kylie," she replied, "Kylie Owens."

He stuck out his hand. "Tsubasa Ozu." She shook it, feeling a fluttering in her stomach that for once had nothing to do with magic.

* * *

Tsubasa had to wait until they were on the bus and on their way out of the small town before he could open the gift. As she'd promised, a jar containing a thick, white paste was inside, along with a few sealed packages of herbs, most of which he recognised, but one or two that he didn't. Accompanying them was a folded piece of paper with a recipe printed on it. The instructions were translated into a clumsy Japanese that had to have come from an online translator, but he understood them just fine. It was definitely a concoction he hadn't come across before, and wondered where he'd be able to get his hands on all the ingredients if it turned out that this stuff worked.

He hadn't expected to run into another mage while out on tour. Add in the fact that she was a pretty girl about his age… He remembered Rei's last request, to go on living for her sake. She was probably smiling down on him right now.

His eyes drifted down to the bottom of the page, where a name and postal address had been added by hand. Maybe, he mused, maybe this could be the start of something.

THE END

* * *

**Just a little something sweet. 'Return to the Digital World IV' is still incomplete, so it won't be out until May or June at the earliest.**


End file.
